Dear Sunset Shimmer,
turns out it was once more time for one of Equestria's major crises. This time Discord was to blame (again). Admittedly what happened today was apparently caused by something he did more than a millenia ago so I suppose we can't really blame him. But I guess I should tell you what actually happened.
It was all to do with the vines I told you about, as well as the Tree of Harmony. Turns out the Tree of Harmony, in a cave beneath the Castle of the Two Sisters in the Everfree Forest, is the origin of the Elements of Harmony. When Discord took over the first time, Celestia and Luna took the Elements from the Tree and used them against Discord.
But Discord planted what he called 'Plunderseeds' while he was messing with the Princesses. He thought they would capture Celestia and Luna and cause enough chaos to give him the power to escape his prison. The Tree of Harmony is the reason that didn't work. Even without the Elements it had enough power to not only contain the wild magic of the Everfree but also stop the Plunderseeds from sprouting. Until now.
After being without the Elements for so long the tree could no longer contain them. They grew into the Plundervines and started by capturing Celestia and Luna (that's why it was day and night at once) before growing all throughout the forest and then into Ponyville.
When we arrived I had the queen's guard help the townsfolk in containing the vines, while I worked with the other Element Bearers to figure out what was going on. With all that was going on it wasn't hard to figure out it was Discord, so we summoned him. He denied everything, of course, but he pointed us to Zecora, turns out with the vines the forest was to wild even for her to live in.
She happened to have a potion that could help. It needed alicorn magic to activate, good thing changelings can mimic magical signatures and queens have enough power to mimic alicorns. After I activated it, it allowed me to look into the past.
Let's just say the experience was rather intense. The first time it showed me the original rise of Nightmare Moon. The second time it showed me the first defeat of Discord. (If you want,I can tell you in detail how both of those happened when I next visit) And then it showed me Celestia and Luna getting the Elements from the Tree.
That's how I realized we needed to give the elements back to the Tree. Only problem being that the Tree was deep in the Everfree Forest and right at the source of these vines. Good thing that we could take a Shuttle to the ravine that led to the Tree of Harmony.
It was a bit messy towards the end but we managed to get the Elements back where they belonged.
The Tree released a wave of magic that destroyed the vines and that fixed everything.
I'll stay here for another day or two, then I'll head back to Stripped Gear.
Keeping you posted as requested,
Twilight Sparkle
Dear Twilight,
wow, that was quite the tale. I hope Discord doesn't have any more buried surprises waiting for you. But if you had to give the Elements back to the tree, what will you use as a crown now?
Hoping you'll be alright without it,
Sunset
Dear Sunset,
I'm not sure yet, normally royals grow their crowns during their protoqueen phase. I assume the element was the reason I didn't grow one back then. I don't know if I'll grow one now but I guess if my head starts itching soon I'll know for sure.
I'll let you know what happens,
Twilight
Dear Sunset,
given the rather distracting itch I'm currently experiencing, I think it's safe to say that I am growing a crown.
Just letting you know,
Twilight
Dear Twilight,
changeling queens grow their crowns? Is it just me or is that extremely weird? I'm glad you'll have a crown again, just don't scratch it too much.
Wishing you strength to withstand the itch,
Sunset.
Dear Sunset,
don't you start too, the caretakers are already telling me not to scratch it at least once an hour.
That aside, yes we grow them, and yes, it is, indeed, weird.
I'll let you know once it's done growing or if anything else happens,
Twilight
Dear Sunset,
I just got word from Roseluck back in Ponyville. It seems the CMC were out once more, I told you about the Equestria Games when I visited, didn't I? Well it seems, they were having a contest among the foals in Ponyville's school.
Ponyville may be a small town but given the many world shaking events that took place in and around town it was considered important enough to have it's own team.
The school was holding a contest with the help of Rainbow and a representative of the EGPC for a team of foals to carry the Ponyville Flag.
Of course the Crusaders (funny thing they still call themselves that over in your world despite the fact that cutie marks don't exist there) would participate and of course Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon (are they just as obnoxious on your side?) would get in their way by trying to mess with Scootaloo's confidence by telling her that she couldn't represent Pegasi because she can't fly yet.
Well, Rainbow was having none of that and had a talk with Scootaloo about it. They got everything fixed and the Crusaders won, so they'll be carrying the Ponyville Flag into the arena at the games.
Cadista and I are currently talking with the EGPC about having some of our drones participate as well.
In other news, my crown has nearly fully grown in now. I suspect it'll be a few more days before I'll be able to take it off.
I'll be glad when the time comes, it feels weird to be going about the hive wearing a crown.
Hoping you're doing fine at CHS,
Twilight
Dear Twilight,
hold on, take it off? You mean to say you grow a crown but once it's fully grown you can take it off? Changeling physiology is weird.
That aside, glad to hear the CMC are doing well on your end. To answer your question, yes, Diamond and Silver are obnoxious here too and that sounds exactly like something they would do if, y'know, cutie marks were a thing here.
Quick question: What is the EGPC?
When did you say your children would hatch again?
Sunset
Dear Sunset,
Yes, once the crown is fully grown I'll be able to take it off. The EGPC is the Equestria Games Planning Committee. I actually met the representative once, back when she came to see if the Crystal Empire was fit to host the games, her name is Harshwhinny, a curious mare that one, didn't exactly help that we confused her for somepony else and gave our premium tour to a random tourist.
Aegis and the others will hatch slightly more than two weeks from now.
Twilight
Dear Twilight,
Harshwhinny? As in Miss Nagitha Harshwinny? Well I guess we've found another parallel then. She's the history teacher here at CHS. I hope you can deal with her better than I can, she really doesn't like me.
Sunset
Dear Sunset,
yes, that's her. Funny thing.
Anyways I should get to sleep, I'll be leaving the Hive tomorrow, I'm visiting a comic book convention with Spike, so I'll meet him in Whinnieapolis.
I'll tell you if anything interesting happens there,
Twilight
Dear Sunset,
well this was an adventurous day. Spike surprised me by bringing all the girls along to the convention, we had an interesting day there. But an even more interesting night.
Turns out one of the comics Spike bought was enchanted. It sucked all of us into the story as the main characters and we couldn't get out until we defeated the main villain.
It ended up being rather fun. What was less fun was explaining that to the hive afterwards. Turns out being sucked into a comic is a bit of a hindrance for your hivemind-connection. That was an interesting discussion.
Hoping you had a less crazy day,
Twilight.
Dear Twilight,
you were pulled into a comic book? Which one? What happened? I need details, please, or I won't have a moment of peace from Rainbow until I get them from you.
Hoping you can save me from the chromatic menace,
Sunset
Dear Sunset,
let's see what we can do.
Well the comic was an issue of 'The Power Ponies'. We took the places of the protagonists. I was Masked Matter-Horn, Pinkie was Fili-Second, AJ was Mistress Mare-Velous, Rarity was Radiance, Rainbow was Zap, Fluttershy was Saddle Rager and Spike was Hum-Drum.
We went up against the Mane-iac who captured us using a hairspray based petrification beam. (Comic-Book-Logic I swear ...) Spike managed to disable the system they used to reapply it (it only lasted one minute) and Fluttershy got angry when Mane-iac hit a fly that was on the scope of whatever doomsday weapon she was trying to use (I think she said something about ar-mane-geddon ...).
Once Fluttershy defeated her, we came back out of the comic.
That's the general idea of what happened,
Twilight.